gweeks

Instructor Mike Davidson will conduct a free canopy control course this Saturday starting at 9:30 AM. The class will involve about an hour of instruction covering all facets of canopy flight including landing patterns, accuracy and flaring. The class will then proceed with Mike videoing your landing, and using the video to debrief you and hone your skills. Please contact manifest at 888-875-3540 or [email protected] if you are interested. This course is free. You only have to pay for your slots. If at least three people are interested, Will Lajeunesse will also conduct an Advanced Canopy Flight Course for jumpers who want to learn or progress in high performance landings. Will will video your landings and there will be classroom time in between jumps with debriefing after each jump. Please contact Will at 215-738-6257 or [email protected] if you are interested. The cost of this course is $60 plus 5 slots for you.

It wouldn't be a party without him!

Saturday July 21 after the sunset load we'll have our annual Hurricane Beach Party featuring Jimmy Buffet and other beach music, Dana's Hurricanes, Lisa’s Slip-n-Slide, and Christine's Mojo Mojitos. Click Here for pictures from last year's Hurricane Beach Party!

This guy has had success getting snowmobilers and 4 wheelers access to National Parks.

Jet Ski, ski mobile and 4 wheel enthusiasts and trade associations have all sued for National Park access with varying degrees of success, so maybe a lawsuit would have potential.

Nice letter, but I wouldn't have chosen THAT phrase with regards to Moab. Yeah, I guess I could have worded that more carefully. I didn't mean without death or injury. Those are part of any outdoor sport. I meant without an incident which harms the natural resources. I was thinking about the flatbed incident that contributed to the National Park ban in the first place. Most of the BASE jumpers I've met in my time have been pretty environmentally conscious.

I am writing to urge you to remove the ban on BASE jumping in Zion National Park. BASE jumpers as a group adhere to the same ethical principle as back country campers of "leave no trace." We exhibit and complement the spirit of adventure that a National Park should seek to foster. We have jumped for years off of the cliffs in Moab, Utah on land overseen by the Bureau of Land Management without incident. We have jumped at spectacular locations around the world including the fjords in Norway, soaring cliffs in Italy, Switzerland, France, and Mexico, and Angel Falls in Venezuela. The natural treasures in Zion National Park rival the best of what the world has to offer. It is the charge of the National Park System to preserve, protect, and share, these treasures. To ban BASE jumping would be to fail in this charge by keeping a group of the most adventurous citizens from enjoying in their way the best of what this country has to offer. To ban BASE jumping while allowing higher impact activities such as climbing, camping, and biking is both unfair and illogical. Remove the ban and let us enjoy our Park.

Finally!!!! There are a lot of great dropzones in the DC area, but for many of us only one of them really felt like home. Special thanks to the jumpers at The Point and Chambersburg for being so welcoming and accommodating to us. Hopefully we can return the favor if you come see us. We're gonna party like it's 1999 this weekend!

Just be careful how you spell tourism

Is this the 8 day long free course that is supposed to cover all aspects of BASE jumping including site evaluation and access for all types of objects? If so, then it seems pretty bad to me. Hopefully the cameras don't have access to all that. If it's the "here's what you have to do not to die at the bridge" course then it's not as bad. I guess I have to see the end result before I form an opinion. BTW I googled weaksoss and all I came up with was online chess crap, so wtf does that mean?

The google and yahoo cached versions are gone already. Ask.com still has a cached copy but who knows how long that will last. If you want to save a copy, for whatever reason, better get it now.

After further reflection, I've decided not to denigrate my work by putting a price on it. The adulation of the masses is compensation enough. I just hope it is an inspiration to some budding artist out there. (In all seriousness, I think your sister's stuff is really cool!)

I don't consider myself an artist, but I do like to dabble in graphic design. Here's a project I've been working on for the past few months. I put a lot of time and effort into it and I have to say I'm pretty happy with how it came out. If anyone is interested in buying a print, let me know and we can work something out.

If you're making a film about BASE you might as well make it about BASE. But yeah, I'm bored of it. Unless I'm in it. Then it's the shit.

As proved by Naptown one night, yelling and waving your arms like King Kong on top of the empire state building does not make buzzards go away. It does make your jump buddy laugh though

I have 200+ jumps on a BlackJack 280 including about 10 skydives. It does not have the ZP option. The first and fifth control lines are longer -- always have been that way. I also have 80+ jumps on a Mojo 280 and a handful of jumps on other canopies.

Skydive Delmarva

And opened the object needed to qualify yourself. Nice.

Excellent article on the subject

My first project was a base stash bag. Doesn't get too much simpler than that, but there is a good deal of sewing involved. It's basically just a big sack with a drawstring at the top and shoulder straps and a handle made of some kind of webbing.

Nice set of stats and congrats on object 100! I still have a ways to go for 100 but just for the hell of it here are mine: B's - 2 A's - 27 S's - 4 E's - 13 O's -2 inc 1 crane, 1 Monopole total 48 from 271 jumps since May 2004 total freefall 8 minutes 30 seconds day 81 night 190 highest - 1500ft A, lowest 180ft Monopole Longest Canopy ride - Monkey Lips maybe a minute, lowest - don't know maybe 5 seconds A few gainers, A few unpacked jumps, no wingsuits. Would like to in the future though. 1 sprained shoulder, 1 sprained ankle. Time out due to injury a few days. 0 object strikes, 1 tree landing (see sprained shoulder), a 1 water landing 0 dead friends, 0 busts but close a couple times, no fines or cell time.

My ground crew.

I scratched a line off of my life to do list this weekend. My wife and I and a friend exited the Otter 13500 feet over Deland just as the shuttle was launching. We watched until 10500 then deployed and watched some more. There was a layer of clouds at 6000 feet that was comletely lit up orange from the glow of the engines. One of the most amazing things I've ever seen. Here's a picture I took, although it really doesn't do it justice.

I was passing along what I heard from my friend. Correction from someone who would know: "The Bridle attachemt is held on to a BlackJack with four bartacks, each one is in excess of 400 lbs."

He went to the object the next day and couldn't find the bridle or pilot chute, so there's no way of knowing exactly what happened, but it's almost certain that the bridle and/or pilot chute snagged on the object. The tie off point was a rail recessed about 5 feet from the exit point. Between the tie off point and the exit point there is metal grating. Our best guess is the pilot chute got dragged along the grating and snagged something. The same exit point and tie off point had been used successfully in the past. Marty said the bridle attachment point was designed to fail at 400 lbs and leave a small rectangular hole like that.